4 ms·
Ask HN: Is this a good idea - Startup Deals?
Many technology startups often find it hard to get early adopters/beta users. It becomes even more difficult if their target audience is non-tech and not in their social circle.
How about creating a platform, StartupDeals, that connect startups with early adopters by offering various deals in a way similar to daily deals sites? For e.g., discount coupons, free 3 month membership, etc.
StartupDeals can then market these deals to its registered users based on their interest. It can also try to promote these deals on social media such as Facebook, twitter, G+ etc.
Do you think this idea has legs? Is there any similar service available?
- iSloth 14y agoI understand the concept, however don't see why them startups can't just advertise on the existing deal sites that have a larger user base.
- anujkk 14y agoI believe existing deal sites have different kinds of audience. However, this service will focus on early adopters interested trying out new technologies. Also, it will create a community of such users and will track their interests and activity to recommend relevant startups deals to them.
- cmer 14y agoAppsumo does something similar but yeah, I think it might have some legs...
- anthonycerra 14y agoAnd they've almost completely pivoted to paid educational content. On the one hand it means less competition for the OP, but they pivoted for a reason. There's likely more money in their education products because of the price point and the LTV of the customers. How many times can you sell the same person on an analytics package? The LTV of a customer in a business like that can't be great. You help them find the right tool for the job and you're done. You teach them CSS101 and they come back for CSS201, etc.
- onlyup 14y agoI think it could work. I think it might have to be more "social" than current deal sites like GroupOn. Quick idea: users could have profile pages that list the deals they have gotten and have a one line and 5 star rating for the deal/startup.
- anthonycerra 14y agoYou'll only find half of your answer here - those trying to market their apps. The real trick is finding out if the people that represent the other half of your business model think it's a good idea. Some questions you need to ask yourself: 1. Who are those early adopters? (the end users, not the HN crowd [a]) 2. Where do they hang out? [a] The HN crowd could be early adopters for a service like analytics or something techy, but probably not the best crowd for, as a wild example, a premium knitting service.